Lethe
by FoundIt
Summary: Mammoth, Gizmo, and Jinx are forced to seek the protection of the Teen Titans. As if that's not bad enough, Jinx has lost her memory. WARNING: This story writes itself.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

Author's note: Hi. This story is writing itself. It's quite exciting to be the author of a story and not know where it's going. I don't know where the plot is heading and I don't know what the pairings are going to be. The only thing that I knew was going to happen before I started typing was that Mammoth, Gizmo, and Jinx were all going to be very close. I like them that way. Other than that, I just type down ideas as the pop into my head. Some of the things happening in this story were literally thought up only sentences before they are incorporated into the chapter.

Enjoy!

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Robin was feeling content.

He'd just beaten Beastboy in two rounds of Burnout, Starfire was curled up at his side, and he was currently getting to watch Cyborg clobber Beastboy, once again.

Apparently, the luck of the Irish has nothing to do with the color of their shamrocks.

Starfire jumps as BB's car rams into the side of the track, creating a beautiful explosion.

"You may suck at actually winning a race, Beastboy, but I'll give you props for managing to bring so much damage from one little wreck," laughs Cyborg as he crosses the finish line.

Beastboy grumbles, readying himself for round two. "I'm going to win eventually!"

From her spot on the floor, Raven scoffs. "I'm sure these losses have no connection with your skills, Beastboy. It was simply coincidence that Cy beat you this time. And the last time. Oh, and the time before that…" BB glares at the girl. Robin can't help grinning at the two of them.

"Gee, probability sure is out of whack tonight…" Raven adds, thoughtfully. She is smirking victoriously until she receives a face full of pillow.

Raven's face is priceless. Cyborg is roaring with laughter and Starfire is trying not to giggle. BB, who had looked momentarily satisfied with his aim, was beginning to get a little pale. He edges slowly off the couch.

_Smart move_, thinks Robin as Raven lunges at Beastboy, missing by bare inches.

"You better run, boy!" yells Cyborg. Robin is quite sure that entertainment doesn't get much better than this.

Just when Raven catches up to BB, jumping on his back and attempting to strangle him, there is a knock at the door of the tower. Robin moves to open it, dodging the flailing duo. Beastboy is failing miserably at dislodging Raven and is currently screaming for mercy. Robin's chuckling as he opens the door, but freezes when he sees who is waiting outside.

BB is still making odd noises, while Raven keeps a choke hold on his neck, until he turns towards the doorway. They both stop fighting.

Outside the door, standing in the rain with what look like several plastic bags packed to the brim, looking exhausted and quite unhappy to be there, are three members of the HIVE. Gizmo and Mammoth stare wearily and a bit desperately at Robin. Jinx, the last member to make up their trio is being carried in the arms of Mammoth. A nasty bruise has formed on one side of her forehead and a cut that is pink and fresh travels from her eye to her chin.

Robin blinks.

"We're not here for a fight," says Mammoth, readjusting Jinx's deadweight.

BB's mouth is hanging slightly open.

"We need your help," Gizmo explains urgently, glancing from Robin to the prone form of Jinx.

Cyborg gapes at them.

Surprisingly, Starfire is the one to take action. She moves Robin out of the way and ushers the three enemies inside.


	2. Chapter 2

Jinx thought that maybe someone had imbedded a particularly sharp machete into her skull. It HURT.

She blinked blearily, trying to focus on the horribly bright light located right above her. _Wait. Bright light? That's not a good sign._

"Am I dead?"

Expecting to hear Satan laughing in delight, Jinx was thouroughly suprised when she was answered by a voice that she vaguely recognized. "Apparently not."

That seemed like a very negative way to answer the question. She wondered who was talking. Wishing they would bend over to look at her so she could get a glance at their face, she tried to think back to how she got into this situation.

Rain. Jinx remembers rain. And screaming. Who was screaming? She really couldn't recall much else. In fact, now that she thought about it, she couldn't remember much at all. Like, what was her name, anyways? And how did she get here? Suddenly she realized that this could quite well be her own room. She honestly had no idea. Not good.

"Um. What am I doing here?" she questioned the other occupant of the room. There was a shuffling noise, the person was moving closer to her bed, and then the male voice answered again. "Good question. I don't know what happened to you, but you're lucky to be alive." By the sounds of it, this person wasn't exactly thrilled by this fact. She was growing less and less fond of whoever this was by the minute. Suddenly she felt something cold being dabbed lightly at her face, then placed on her forehead. The person hesitated, then asked softly, in a different tone than before, "Does your head hurt?"

"I feel like I tried to play chicken with semi and lost fantastically." There was a small huff of laughter to her left side and she decided that maybe this person wasn't that annoying, if he could appreciate good humor. "Who are you?"

"Uh, I think there might be a couple of guys who could explain that a bit better than I could. Besides, they've been crazy with worry for you."

_Good. At least someone has. Even if I don't know who you're talking about._

"Well bring 'em in."

The person stood up. He leaned over her, finally giving her a chance to look at his face. She was surprised to find that he had green skin. "Yes ma'am!" he said, grinning lightly. While turning around to exit the room, he let his hand brush the side of her face, lingering momentarily. "Good to see you pulled through," he whispered and walked out.

Well, Jinx was thouroughly confused. Who was he? Green skin? Should she know him? Because, although the green skin wasn't shocking her as much as she expected it too, she was still disconcerted. And what's with the mixed emotions? First he's cold, then he's worried. Could this get any weirder?

Apparently, it could.

In walked two boys: One- Her height, if not shorter, sporting a green one-peice outfit (it resembled the attire of a mechanic), a deep green beanie, and goggles pushed onto his forehead. Two- Large in every sense of the word. Tall, wide, and thick, this boy had enough hair to hide a family of four.

She couldn't put a name to either of their faces and their appearances alone should have made her shy away, but she felt oddly comfortable in their presence.

They rushed to her side, looking as happy as the geek in gym class being told that, "No, you don't have to run forty laps today."

She smiled at her own joke. The boys took it to mean that she was glad to see them.

"Thank god you're alright!"

"Don't ever scare us like that again."

"Or ever make us take such desperate measures again."

While she had no idea what they were talking about, it was fun watching them try to act angry when all they really seemed to want to do was hug her. She supposed, by they way they were acting, that she should probably recognize them. And while she felt the same familiarity to these people as she did to the green boy, she couldn't recall anything about them.

_I guess I should really mention my complete lack memory sometime soon._

"That's real sweet and all, but just one question," she began, "Who are you?"

They blinked.

Then the large boy laughed. "Don't even try it, Jinx! Here we are, worried sick about you for days, and you're not even conscious thirty minutes and already trying to pull a prank."

"I'm sorry to disappoint, boys, but I honestly have no recollection of you at all. Or how I got into this situation. And is this my room? Because I have dreadful taste if it is."

The goggle boy was beginning to look worried. "Listen," she continued, "I'm sorry, I truly am, but I'm at a complete loss as to what is going on here." She watched as comprehension and horror dawned on their faces. "In fact, I'm not all that sure of who exactly I am at the moment."

She was hoping that they could finally shed some light onto her current sitution. She was wrong, however. The short one's face changed from shock to anger faster than she could blink. Not quite sure what had spurred his change in attitude, she watched as he lept out of his chair muttering, "I'll kill them."

"Who are you--" Jinx began, but was cut off by the boy opening the door to the room and yelling into the hallway. "Titans! Get in here now! You're going to tell me exactly what you did to Jinx!"

_Jinx._ She thought, while staring at the two enraged boys and waiting for whoever the 'Titans' were to get to the room. _What an odd name. Why would I ever tell anyone to call me that?_

She had no time to mull over this, however, since at that moment five more people entered the room. Actually, she wasn't even sure if they qualified as people.

First to enter was a typical looking teenage boy. Average height, average build, and black hair. The only abnormal qualities he had were his cape and the mask covering his eyes. She wondered what he was hiding from.

Next came a female; very tall with orange tinted skin, long red hair, and bright green eyes. Not just her pupils were green, but the entire eye itself. As if this wasn't enough to make Jinx's head spin, the girl didn't walk through the doorway like the boy before her. She floated. Jinx might have to ask her just how she did that.

Following the flying female came a boy about the size of the hairy male she had been talking to only moments before. He, however, had no hair at all. In fact, he was lacking quite a bit in the skin department, too. Half his body, including both legs, one arm, and half his face, was mechanical. _I wonder if he ever needs to eat..._

After the half-man, half-machine, came a girl who looked to be about Jinx's height. She seemed generally bored with the entire proceedings, as though she wished she had much better things to do, but had to admit to herself that this was all the entertainment she was going to get. Dressed in a leotard beneath a dark cape, hood down so that Jinx could see her short, purple hair, she rolled her eyes at the last person to answer the summon.

The first thing Jinx registered was the color green, and she recognized the last occupant as the boy she had seen first after waking up. He was about the same size as the boy with the mask and his entire body was covered with green. That wasn't his only unusual attribute. Jinx noted green hair, long, pointy ears, and, when he threw her a tiny smile, especially sharp canines. She found that she didn't mind smiling back.

The boy with the cape waited until his everyone had made it to the room, then spoke. "What can we help you with?" Jinx noticed that the group acted friendly enough towards the two boys, but they stood tense and alert, like they may have to defend themselves at any moment. _What could be making everyone so on edge? Does it have something to do with me? I could seriously use some answers here._

"I could seriously use some answers," she said out loud.

"This is what you can help me with, Robin," said goggle-boy coldy, answering the boy in the cape. _Ha, Robin. He's a bird with a cape._

The situation seemed a little too tense for laughter, so she held back a small giggle.

"She doesn't remember anything," added the hairy boy. "Not who we are, not where she lives, not even her own name!"

"So you immediately assume it was something we did!" shouted the boy/machine. "Now I like that. We take you in, protect you, care for her," he gestures at her, "and what do we get? Accusations of ruining someone's memory?"

The girl with purple hair is looking at the two boys like they are something she might have found on the bottom of her shoe. "You do realize that in many cases of people who have received serious damage to the head, they will lose some, if not all of their memory? Is it really that far-fetched to believe that Jinx may have just lost hers due to head trauma?"

Goggle-boy still looked suspicious, but he relaxed a bit and sighed. He looked back at her sadly, then at the girl who had spoken. "What can we do to help her, Raven?"

_Raven! Another bird with a cape?_

This time she did let out a little snort of laughter and the attention of the room shifted to her. They couldn't understand what could possibly be funny about this situation, especially to her, and she received quite a few odd stares. The green-boy, however, was hiding a few silent chuckles behind his hand at the her innapropriate show of emotion.

Since they were looking, she took the opportunity to ask some questions she hoped would get answered this time. "First off, am I to assume that my name is Jinx?"

The group nodded, silent. "And I don't remember anything because of some sort of head injury that put me into this position and is the cause of my splitting headache?"

Another collective nod. "Good, we're getting somewhere! Now, who wants to fill in the rest of the blanks? Starting with, 'Who are all of you?'"

Everyone hesitated. Finally, the green boy stepped forward. "Hi," he said softly.

"Hi," she replied.

"Well, um, this is kind of awkward. I'm Beastboy." She gave him an incredulous look and was rewarded with a large grin. "Yeah, funny name, I know."

"I guess it's understandable, since mine happens to be Jinx."

He continued, pointing around the room. He indicated the boy with the mask, "This is Robin, the metal-man is Cyborg, the one smiling at you is Starfire, and the grumpy girl is Raven," he finished, playfully nudging the purple-haired girl. "The five of us make up a crime-fighting team called the 'Teen Titans.' We'll explain that later." He nodded at the two boys that seemed to know her best. "These two are your best friends. Shorty over here goes by Gizmo," goggle-boy gave an indignant splutter "and the big guy is Mammoth."

She nodded around the room at them, trying to imprint their names in her mind. _Robin, Cyborg, Starfire, Raven, Gizmo, Mammoth._ _Oh right, and Beastboy._

"Thank you," she says looking at Beastboy. "Now for the fun part. What happened to me?"

Gizmo took the lead for this question. "You were with Mammoth and I. You, uh..." he looked like he was searching for a way to explain the incident so that she could comprehend, since she lacked memory of herself. "You--We got ourselves on the bad side of a powerful man. He attacked you when we weren't around and we almost didn't make it in time to save you. We barely got out alive, ourselves. You were unconscious by the time we escaped the man, from a blow to the head. I can't believe he would actually dare to hit you!" Gizmo looked angry. "We did the only thing we thought we could, to keep you safe. We brought you here, to Titan Tower, home of the Teen Titans." He ended with what sounded like either sarcasm or resentment.

"This is our healing room," said Starfire, helpfully. "You have been here for almost four days."

Jinx is confused. "Okay, so the only thing I can't understand is why, if you guys helped us out, do Gizmo and Mammoth act as though they can't stand to be in the same room as you. And why do the five of you act like if you let down your guard then these two" she pointed at the boys "will stab you in the back?"

The room became deadly silent. The Titans exchanged defensive glances. Mammoth and Gizmo looked unhappily at the five.

"Well?" she prompted.

"It's a long story," said Robin tersely. "Come on team, let's leave these three alone for a while. They have a lot to catch up on." He didn't leave immediately, but waited for the other four to exit first. He stopped Beastboy before he left and whispered something too him. Beastboy nodded in response before they both moved through the doorway and closed it behind them.


	3. Chapter 3

Gizmo sighed.

"How could this happen? How did we end up here?" fumed Mammoth.

Gizmo just shook his head sadly, dropping down into a chair beside her bed. He leaned his elbows onto his knees and his face on his palms.

"I'm so sorry, Jinx." She was surprised by the pain in his voice. "I never should have left you alone. Not for a second. He NEVER should have been able to touch you."

He wasn't looking at her. "It's my fault. I wasn't there to save you. And now you can't even remember who I am!" He said this with a flash of hurt and anger, clenching his fists. "A fitting punishment for my mistake, I suppose."

"I'm sure that I accept your apology," she began, carefully. "But it really would be helpful if you could give me the entire story now."

Mammoth put a hand on Gizmo's shoulder, who nodded.

"Alright," Mammoth said. "I'll start."

The story Jinx is told is hard to swallow. She doesn't want to believe them, but how else can she explain floating girls and boys with green skin? Her mind feels cloudy. She thinks that maybe she needs to get some more sleep. The boys try their best to give her detailed information about everything, but there are still gaps. Still things that don't make sense, don't fit.

They tell her about the incident that put her into this 'hospital bed.' Apparently she worked for an organization called the HIVE. She was surprised to learn that she was a criminal and quite possibly a murderer. Mammoth and Gizmo were her partners; they'd been together for years.

According to them, the three of them had become a danger to the HIVE. They were obediant first to each other, then to the organization. The HIVE, their leader Blood Brother had said, always came first. They were unified. Any separation from the whole, any bonds that became too close, had to be punished. The ones in question had to prove their loyalty.

When he discovered how close the relationship between Mammoth, Gizmo, and herself had become, he immediately set to put a stop to it. He was going to make an example out of them, show all the other HIVE members just what happens when your loyalty doesn't first lie with him.

Jinx stared, horrified, as they recounted exactly what Blood Brother did to tear them apart. He planned to kill one of them. And the lucky winner was Gizmo. Of course, he didn't know at the time. Blood Brother talked to Jinx and Mammoth alone. He threatened and bribed them, said that the death of their teammate was the only way to save themselves.

Mammoth told her this part without looking at either her or Gizmo.

"He wanted us to kill our teammate, our best friend. He knew that if he could make us do that, then he would have us under control."

He wiped his face with one hand. "Don't worry. We refused, of course. Surprisingly, he did nothing to us then. Just said, 'If that is your decision, then so be it.' and sent us to our dorms. We were naive, Jinx. We thought that his questioning us was the test. We thought that he wanted to make sure that, as a team, the three of us would lay down our lives together. We thought that was the kind of unity that he was looking for. We figured that Gizmo had been questioned about the same thing." He paused. "We were wrong."

He scrunched up his face in anger as he spoke the next part. "I left you then, to go to the female dorms. I went to my room, shared with Gizmo, and told him all about our meeting, expecting him share his experience also. But he said that Blood Brother hadn't spoken to him in days. Then I started to worry. Of course Blood Brother wasn't a good man. He was the leader of a criminal organization, taught teenagers how to become assassins, killed people even. I just never thought he would turn on one of his own students, just to teach a lesson. Unfortunately, I didn't think of the big picture. I didn't stop to think that you and I might be in danger. My only thought was to get Gizmo out of there as fast as possible."

He stopped talking, taking deep breaths.

Gizmo looked worriedly at him and picked up where he left off. "We left the dorms quickly, ended up outside in the rain. Mammoth told me to lay low a while, maybe get out of the city even. I told him I wouldn't leave until you two were with me. He promised to go back and pick you up as quickly as possible after we found somewhere for me to wait safely."

"We were just about to enter a late night rave club, figured it would have a dark corner for me to hide in, when someone yelled our names. Jolt--you probably don't remember him. He was an aquantence from the HIVE. He told us that Blood Brother had been looking for me, said he was quite angry when he realized that I'd disappeared. He said that since Blood Brother couldn't find me, he turned on you. Attacked you right inside your room, no warning at all. We ran as fast as we could back to the HIVE. Just as we were nearing the building, we saw something fall out of a third story window."

He was choking up. "It was you, Jinx. He'd knocked you right through the window. And before we could reach you, before we even knew if you'd survived the fall, he was out there blocking your body from us. We barely managed to hold him off long enough for Mammoth to grab your body. We had a few friends in the organization and they tried to help, but everyone was cautious, afraid to be targeted by our leader next. The HIVE was our home. We had nowhere safe to go. So we brought you to the only people we thought would be able to defend you. The Titans."

Jinx looked at the distraught Gizmo.

"Holy. Crap," she said.

This brought a tiny smile to his lips and he even managed a small laugh. "Thank god there doesn't seem to be any major damage to her personality," said Mammoth fondly.

"So what do we do now?"


End file.
